


Now or Never

by yuwinko



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Magic, Blood, M/M, Magic, Potions, Shapeshifting, but not like any at all, jeno has many cats, kind of, winwin is a shapeshifter, yuta does potions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 07:11:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15552387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuwinko/pseuds/yuwinko
Summary: One day Yuta meets a beautiful deer in his garden, he doesn't expect said deer would mean so much to him in the end.





	Now or Never

**Author's Note:**

> weewoo i'm back with my brand.
> 
> title from sf9's new comeback yeehaw

Yuta worked hard in his garden in the heat of the sun. He plucked weed after weed, making sure all his herbs were growing well. His hair was sticking to his forehead and he brushed it back with his hand. Once he was satisfied with his plucking, he walked up to the well to fill up his watering can with water, watered all the herbs, and even the flowers growing in pots on his porch. His small house looked even smaller covered and surrounded by all kinds of plants, but he loved it more that way.

 

Once he returned to his garden to collect some herbs for a potion his neighbour had ordered from him, he noticed something moving by the back gate. Yuta found himself staring into the eyes of a beautiful deer. The deer blinked at Yuta twice and he knew it was no normal deer. He could feel the magic energy of the animal even from a distance. The deer lowered its head and looked around on the ground, and Yuta figured it must been hungry.

 

“You’re hungry, right?” Yuta asked in a calm voice, and the deer looked up at him again. It slowly shifted its gaze from Yuta to the well and Yuta walked over to the well. “Thirsty?” Yuta asked, and the deer blinked at him again, as if answering his question. 

 

Yuta filled a bucket to the brim with water and placed it on the ground by the well, it was too heavy to carry across the garden to the deer.

“You’ll have to come here, I’ve worked all day and I’m exhausted,” Yuta told the deer as he stepped back. He hoped it wouldn’t be too intimidated by him. Slowly the deer walked towards Yuta through the open gate. It followed the paths made in the garden, and when it reached the well, it looked at Yuta one last time before it started drinking. 

 

Yuta wanted to capture the moment forever. The graceful animal in front of him in his beautiful garden. After many big gulps the deer stopped drinking and it looked at Yuta again. Yuta didn’t know what to do so he just waited for the animal to move. He expected it to leave the garden, but instead it walked up to him and sniffed at his hand. Yuta giggled when he felt its breath tickle him, but he figured it wanted some scratches behind its ears. 

 

Soon the deer seemed content, and it slowly backed away. It carefully turned around, avoiding Yuta’s plants, and once outside of the gate it turned around to look at Yuta again.

“I’ll leave the gate open and the bucket here, feel free to come back,” Yuta said, and smiled. The deer disappeared into the woods and Yuta followed it with his eyes until he couldn’t see it among the trees anymore.

 

Yuta almost forgot to pick the right herbs for the potion he was supposed to make, and when he finally got to his small kitchen, he realised he was in a hurry. He had promised Jeno to bring the potion to him as soon as he was done in his garden, so he quickly scrambled the ingredients together, following the instructions in his potions book. Luckily it was a simple potion to treat wounds. Jeno had complained about how his cats would get into fights with other cats and the scratches could get pretty nasty.

 

Once the potion was done, Yuta headed out towards Jeno’s house. While Yuta lived outside the village, Jeno’s house was on the way to the village market, and since Yuta needed to buy some ginger from the market, he decided to do everything in one go. When he opened the gate to Jeno’s garden, a cat slipped out before Yuta even noticed. Jeno was sitting in the shade of the big oak tree outside his house and waved for his friend to come over.

 

One of Jeno’s many cats was sleeping in his lap and Yuta placed the potion on the small table between the two chairs. 

“Drop a cloth in the potion and place it on the wound,” he said, and Jeno nodded while eyeing the bottle. “Do it morning and night,” Yuta continued.

“How can I thank you for this?” Jeno asked, waking up the cat in his lap as he decided to get up and walk to the house.

“You know I don’t like to receive money from my friends,” Yuta complained with a groan and Jeno laughed. 

“Let me at least get you some cold juice,” he said before disappearing into his house. 

 

He returned with a can, two glasses and a mysterious bag. After he poured a glass for both Yuta and himself he handed the bag to Yuta.

“It’s ginger roots,” Jeno said leaning back in his chair. He took a sip out his glass before he continued. “Last time you complained about how badly yours were growing.” Yuta thanked Jeno and took a sip out of his glass. 

 

“There was a deer in my garden today,” Yuta said after a while. Jeno didn’t say anything so Yuta proceeded to tell the whole story about the beautiful animal. When he finished Jeno looked at him with worry.

“Don’t get too fond of your new animal friend,” he warned and Yuta was confused. “The farmers are complaining about how the deer are eating their crops, it’s too dry for things to grow well so the animals have started eating food from the fields. They’re going to set up traps in the forest.”

 

Yuta felt worry pool in his stomach, he didn’t want the beautiful deer to get hurt. He hurried home and set out some food for his new deer friend. He put a plate of fresh vegetables next to the bucket of water by the well and made sure the gate to the garden was open so the deer could get in.

 

Yuta didn’t see the deer until a few days later. He knew it had visited him, the prints in his garden and disappearing vegetables made it clear. It was early morning and Yuta was once again working in his garden, this time the deer watched him work and when Yuta was done the deer walked up to him. It sniffed Yuta’s hands and the tickle of its breath made Yuta giggle.

“More scratches?” he asked and the deer looked very happy when Yuta scratched it behind its ears. “I’m already spoiling you.” When the deer was content, it slowly retreated back into the forest through the gate, and Yuta went inside to finish some potions for the villagers.

 

The sun had already set when Yuta returned from the market. He had dropped off some potions to various people and even met up with Doyoung for a cup of tea. The summer night was cool and Yuta enjoyed the calmness as he walked up to his house. 

 

When he opened the gate to his house his eyes widened with shock. There was a boy sitting on his porch, not only that, his right leg was bleeding. When Yuta approached him the boy looked up and his eyes met Yuta’s. Yuta recognised the eyes immediately, and the magical energy he felt from the boy only confirmed it. The deer was a shapeshifter, and it was currently sitting on his front porch with a bleeding leg.

 

“There was a trap,” the boy said quietly looking down at his leg, and Yuta followed his gaze towards the wound on his leg. 

“Come with me,” he said, and the boy made a pained sound when he got up to follow him. Yuta was a bit hesitant to help him but the boy thanked him quietly when he did, getting him to sit down in the kitchen.

 

Yuta helped the boy sit down on a chair by his work table, and from there on Yuta’s body moved on auto pilot. He tried healing the wound as much as possible with his magic but he knew he wasn’t strong enough to heal it all. He was thankful he had some leftover healing potion. He carefully wrapped the deer boy’s leg into a cloth after carefully cleaning it and putting some of the potion on the wound. The boy stayed put through all of it, not moving an inch or saying a single word. 

 

When Yuta stepped back from him after he was done, he suddenly felt the awkwardness set in the air. He washed his hands and when he turned to look at the boy again he cleared his throat to say something, but the boy beat him to it.

“Thank you for helping me,” he said, looking down in his lap. “My name is Sicheng.” The boy, or Sicheng, finally looked Yuta in the eyes again and Yuta gave him a soft smile in return.

“It’s nothing really, and I’m Yuta,” he replied. He wanted to ask Sicheng about his deer form, but felt like it would be too out of place. He had never met a shapeshifter before. “I’ll make dinner now, you’re welcome to stay if you want to.” Yuta explained and Sicheng thanked him. 

 

They wasn’t much of a conversation between them while Yuta prepared dinner. When the stew was set on the table and Yuta sat down across from Sicheng his curiosity got to him.

“We’ve met before, haven’t we?” he asked Sicheng, and Sicheng looked down at the table, avoiding Yuta’s eyes.

“I didn’t want our first encounter to be like this, or, rather, the first one in human form,” he muttered, and Yuta gave Sicheng a reassuring smile when he finally looked up at him again. “I don’t know anyone around here, except you, and when I got hurt…” Sicheng trailed off and blushed. Yuta found his shyness adorable.

“Don’t worry about it, you were hurt, and it’s basically my job to heal and help people,” he comforted Sicheng, and Sicheng shook his head.

“I don’t know how I can repay you for this, I don’t have any money” he said with a frown on his face. Yuta stayed quiet for a while, weighing his options until he finally spoke up again.

“There’s one thing you can do,” he said, hesitant to continue, but Sicheng’s face had lit up with hope and got him to finish telling him about his offer. “You can stay here and help me, do garden work and help me clean and besides, your bandage needs to be changed morning and night for at least a week. My magic powers weren’t enough to heal it completely.”

 

As simply as that everything was set, Sicheng helped Yuta as much as he could, but his leg wasn’t completely healed yet. Even so, Yuta could see that the garden looked much prettier than it had done a few days ago. When he returned home late from business in the market, Sicheng prepared him meals. Yuta got to know more about the boy that had been so shy at first, and he didn’t want their time together to end, but Sicheng’s leg was healing much quicker than expected. After five days, when Yuta took off the bandage, the wound was almost completely gone. He carefully put some of his potion on it and wrapped it up, and Sicheng gave him a big smile and a thank you in return.

 

When the sun had set and Yuta was climbing into his bed, he felt sorrow fill his chest. He had grown rather fond of Sicheng, and he didn’t want him to leave. They never talked about what would happen once Sicheng’s wound had healed, and Yuta was too afraid to ask. After a lot of tossing and turning, he managed to  fall asleep.

 

Sicheng woke up to a loud scream, quickly running to Yuta’s room from the living room where his makeshift bed was set up. When he entered the small bedroom Yuta was sitting up in his bed, with his hands wrapped around his legs. Yuta was shaking, Sicheng walked up to him slowly, and when their eyes met, Sicheng hurried up to him. He wrapped his arms around Yuta, and in the comfort of Sicheng’s arms, Yuta started crying his heart out.

 

They stayed huddled up together for a long time. When Yuta’s sobs had quieted down, and his breathing was steady again, Sicheng slowly helped him lie down in bed, and Yuta’s hand reached out for Sicheng’s as he was tucking him in.

“Don’t leave me,” Yuta whispered, his voice hoarse from all the crying. Sicheng wasn’t sure what he meant, but when he felt himself being tugged onto the bed, he didn’t fight it. Yuta wrapped his arms around Sicheng and Sicheng made sure the blanket was covering them both before he started stroking Yuta’s hair. Soon Yuta was snoring quietly, and Sicheng felt himself drift away to dreamland too.

 

Sicheng woke up alone in Yuta’s bed the next morning. The room was bright and he was sure he had slept much longer than usual. He walked into the kitchen to find a teacup waiting for him on the table, but there was no sign of Yuta. Sicheng took the cup in his hand and slowly sipped on it while he walked out to the porch, expecting Yuta to sit out there. When he couldn’t find him on the porch either, he set down the cup and stepped down on the stone path leading to the garden. 

 

Yuta was busy filling his watering can with water when Sicheng finally found him by the well.

“Good morning,” Sicheng said, and Yuta turned around to look at him. He was sure it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Sicheng’s hair was a bit messy, and his loose white sleeping shirt was hanging over one of his shoulders. The morning sunlight made his eyes sparkle, and the flowers around him made it look like he just stepped out of a painting.

“How are you?” Sicheng asked, stepping closer to Yuta who suddenly felt unsure about himself.

“I’m sorry about last night,” he said softly, and Sicheng took Yuta’s hand in his. “I had a horrible nightmare but you really helped me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sicheng said, moving forward to give Yuta a hug. “I don’t want to leave you.” Sicheng whispered into Yuta’s hair, and Yuta hugged him tighter.

“You can stay here as long as you want,” he whispered back.

 

The makeshift bed in the living room was gone, and instead both of them slept cuddled up in Yuta’s bed together. They spent the days together working, and sometimes Sicheng would go on walks in the forest in his deer form. He would return with flowers for Yuta, and Yuta always placed them in a vase on the small table on the porch. Yuta introduced Sicheng to Jeno and Doyoung, and just like that Sicheng became a part of his everyday life.

 

One late summer night, when Sicheng and Yuta returned home from the market, the atmosphere around them had changed. They walked comfortably in silence, but this time they walked hand in hand. When they reached Yuta’s house they quietly washed up and crawled into bed together.

“Is it okay if I kiss you?” Sicheng whispered the question into the darkness. He felt Yuta shift next to him, and suddenly he could make out the shape of Yuta’s face in front of him.

“You don’t have to ask,” Yuta answered, before he leaned in. The kiss was short and sweet, but it was followed by even more. When both of them were breathless from all the kisses, they settled down, happiness and love filling them both up. 

**Author's Note:**

> many hugs for my linguistic hoe alexa who corrects all my work like a teacher


End file.
